Tools you wish you'd bought sooner...
Discussion
CoolHands said:
I’ve got an electric planer but the handful of times I’ve used it I’ve pretty much butchered whatever I was trying to do.
Me too, it’s an horrendous finish when I use mine, the hand planer is so different I honestly think the electric one should have a different tool name! Like Butcher Machine or something Gooose said:
CoolHands said:
I’ve got an electric planer but the handful of times I’ve used it I’ve pretty much butchered whatever I was trying to do.
Me too, it’s an horrendous finish when I use mine, the hand planer is so different I honestly think the electric one should have a different tool name! Like Butcher Machine or something Promised Land said:
finlo said:
Why would you need 110v these days?
Still law on site and I would never swing 18 fire doors a day with a battery planer, they can't take as much off in one pass (been there, done that) as a corded one.Cordless is good for lots of kit, but chop saw, routers and planers corded still beats it. My opinion and another joiner would disagree, that is what makes the world tick.
Sporky said:
I thought lots of sites insist on cordless now?
They do if it’s possible likewise the CSCS book/test suggests using battery powered when you can.It’s about getting a kick from it and a 110 belt will not kill you whereas working in the wet with 240 could. Hence sites are 110 only. That or I live in a bubble of 50 miles diameter that runs differently to the rest of the country.
Edited by Promised Land on Sunday 18th June 19:51
Promised Land said:
It’s about getting a kick from it and a 110 belt will not kill you whereas working in the wet with 240 could. Hence sites are 110 only.
I thought the point of 110v was the transformer, which makes it practically impossible to get a shock as there's no reference to ground. Sporky said:
I thought the point of 110v was the transformer, which makes it practically impossible to get a shock as there's no reference to ground.
No idea on that but 110 won’t kill you, shock you yes and I’ve had one but 240 could do worse.How sites are going with dust suppression and everything else there is no way any site would let you use 240 even if regs/ editions have changed.
Promised Land said:
Sporky said:
I thought the point of 110v was the transformer, which makes it practically impossible to get a shock as there's no reference to ground.
No idea on that but 110 won’t kill you, shock you yes and I’ve had one but 240 could do worse.How sites are going with dust suppression and everything else there is no way any site would let you use 240 even if regs/ editions have changed.
The 230/240 must be protected by a 30ma RCD but you're correct that most sites won't allow but that's more about the ignorance of the site management.
finlo said:
Promised Land said:
Sporky said:
I thought the point of 110v was the transformer, which makes it practically impossible to get a shock as there's no reference to ground.
No idea on that but 110 won’t kill you, shock you yes and I’ve had one but 240 could do worse.How sites are going with dust suppression and everything else there is no way any site would let you use 240 even if regs/ editions have changed.
The 230/240 must be protected by a 30ma RCD but you're correct that most sites won't allow but that's more about the ignorance of the site management.
TBF with reasonable sense and care there's nothing wrong with 230v kit but anyone who thinks we could leave it at that is only displaying their ignorance of the building industry
Promised Land said:
finlo said:
Why would you need 110v these days?
Still law on site and I would never swing 18 fire doors a day with a battery planer, they can't take as much off in one pass (been there, done that) as a corded one.Cordless is good for lots of kit, but chop saw, routers and planers corded still beats it. My opinion and another joiner would disagree, that is what makes the world tick.
Best I managed was 16, virtually no planing of the doors but this was routering the doors and frames. That was just swinging, no latches or locks.
GeneralBanter said:
Gooose said:
CoolHands said:
I’ve got an electric planer but the handful of times I’ve used it I’ve pretty much butchered whatever I was trying to do.
Me too, it’s an horrendous finish when I use mine, the hand planer is so different I honestly think the electric one should have a different tool name! Like Butcher Machine or something Gtom said:
If you are using a planer that much that cordless isn’t a viable option (which it is) you aren’t swinging 18 fire doors in the day unless they are already pre hung?
Best I managed was 16, virtually no planing of the doors but this was routering the doors and frames. That was just swinging, no latches or locks.
Yes I swung 18 with a bit of easing here and there, student accommodation so mainly half hours, labourer loaded out for us so just chopping hinges in, back then I never used a jig/ router for hinges. Cordless planers have their place but for 45mm thick doors I won’t use one.Best I managed was 16, virtually no planing of the doors but this was routering the doors and frames. That was just swinging, no latches or locks.
Plus the student flats had 110 sockets on every landing like most commercial jobs so no generator lumping and filling up.
Linings already in at first fix but not my own so in the lap of the gods for plumb, twist.
finlo said:
The 110 thing was more about the isolation provided by the transformer than the level of voltage.
The 230/240 must be protected by a 30ma RCD but you're correct that most sites won't allow but that's more about the ignorance of the site management.
Rubbish!The 230/240 must be protected by a 30ma RCD but you're correct that most sites won't allow but that's more about the ignorance of the site management.
If you manage a construction site you have a duty of care and you must be able to demonstrate that duty in writing and in practice.
A RCD does not eliminate the risk completely, especially when you consider the environment of a typical building site.
At the later stages of a project it is not unusual to remove the temporary supplies and use the permanent supply short term.
To do so and satisfy your duty of care (potentially demonstrating to the Law and the HSE) you have to write a specific risk assessment for each and every use of something that has the potential to kill you -ie 240v.
In practice this involves for each and every use, on a daily basis or task basis, assessing each individual work zone, circumstance of use, visual inspection of tools and cables and to test the RCD before use.
With all that faffing about it is obvious why we use 110v for site supplies, lighting, fire alarms etc.
Battery operated power tools are great and most sites are swamped with them. But they do bring their own problems…
Theft and battery charging. If you have a large site it is not unusual to have 50 to 60 tradesmen all with chargers. Keeping that lot satisfied is a full time job from “that blokes nicked my battery” to the type of skullduggery that would astound the Artful Dodger. It is unfortunately a common occurrence for tools to get stolen and very difficult to police. Battery theft is even worse.
gfreeman said:
Rubbish!
If you manage a construction site you have a duty of care and you must be able to demonstrate that duty in writing and in practice.
A RCD does not eliminate the risk completely, especially when you consider the environment of a typical building site.
At the later stages of a project it is not unusual to remove the temporary supplies and use the permanent supply short term.
To do so and satisfy your duty of care (potentially demonstrating to the Law and the HSE) you have to write a specific risk assessment for each and every use of something that has the potential to kill you -ie 240v.
In practice this involves for each and every use, on a daily basis or task basis, assessing each individual work zone, circumstance of use, visual inspection of tools and cables and to test the RCD before use.
With all that faffing about it is obvious why we use 110v for site supplies, lighting, fire alarms etc.
Battery operated power tools are great and most sites are swamped with them. But they do bring their own problems…
Theft and battery charging. If you have a large site it is not unusual to have 50 to 60 tradesmen all with chargers. Keeping that lot satisfied is a full time job from “that blokes nicked my battery” to the type of skullduggery that would astound the Artful Dodger. It is unfortunately a common occurrence for tools to get stolen and very difficult to police. Battery theft is even worse.
When we did our self-build, ALL the traders and i mean ALL of them had their initials in large, obvious letter in prominent places on ALL their kit.... What's different on the bigger sites?If you manage a construction site you have a duty of care and you must be able to demonstrate that duty in writing and in practice.
A RCD does not eliminate the risk completely, especially when you consider the environment of a typical building site.
At the later stages of a project it is not unusual to remove the temporary supplies and use the permanent supply short term.
To do so and satisfy your duty of care (potentially demonstrating to the Law and the HSE) you have to write a specific risk assessment for each and every use of something that has the potential to kill you -ie 240v.
In practice this involves for each and every use, on a daily basis or task basis, assessing each individual work zone, circumstance of use, visual inspection of tools and cables and to test the RCD before use.
With all that faffing about it is obvious why we use 110v for site supplies, lighting, fire alarms etc.
Battery operated power tools are great and most sites are swamped with them. But they do bring their own problems…
Theft and battery charging. If you have a large site it is not unusual to have 50 to 60 tradesmen all with chargers. Keeping that lot satisfied is a full time job from “that blokes nicked my battery” to the type of skullduggery that would astound the Artful Dodger. It is unfortunately a common occurrence for tools to get stolen and very difficult to police. Battery theft is even worse.
Actually that's a slight lie. One chippie didn't, when i asked him why not "nobody else is daft enough to buy festool like me, so it's never a problem"
gfreeman said:
finlo said:
The 110 thing was more about the isolation provided by the transformer than the level of voltage.
The 230/240 must be protected by a 30ma RCD but you're correct that most sites won't allow but that's more about the ignorance of the site management.
Rubbish!The 230/240 must be protected by a 30ma RCD but you're correct that most sites won't allow but that's more about the ignorance of the site management.
If you manage a construction site you have a duty of care and you must be able to demonstrate that duty in writing and in practice.
A RCD does not eliminate the risk completely, especially when you consider the environment of a typical building site.
At the later stages of a project it is not unusual to remove the temporary supplies and use the permanent supply short term.
To do so and satisfy your duty of care (potentially demonstrating to the Law and the HSE) you have to write a specific risk assessment for each and every use of something that has the potential to kill you -ie 240v.
In practice this involves for each and every use, on a daily basis or task basis, assessing each individual work zone, circumstance of use, visual inspection of tools and cables and to test the RCD before use.
With all that faffing about it is obvious why we use 110v for site supplies, lighting, fire alarms etc.
Battery operated power tools are great and most sites are swamped with them. But they do bring their own problems…
Theft and battery charging. If you have a large site it is not unusual to have 50 to 60 tradesmen all with chargers. Keeping that lot satisfied is a full time job from “that blokes nicked my battery” to the type of skullduggery that would astound the Artful Dodger. It is unfortunately a common occurrence for tools to get stolen and very difficult to police. Battery theft is even worse.
finlo said:
gfreeman said:
finlo said:
The 110 thing was more about the isolation provided by the transformer than the level of voltage.
The 230/240 must be protected by a 30ma RCD but you're correct that most sites won't allow but that's more about the ignorance of the site management.
Rubbish!The 230/240 must be protected by a 30ma RCD but you're correct that most sites won't allow but that's more about the ignorance of the site management.
If you manage a construction site you have a duty of care and you must be able to demonstrate that duty in writing and in practice.
A RCD does not eliminate the risk completely, especially when you consider the environment of a typical building site.
At the later stages of a project it is not unusual to remove the temporary supplies and use the permanent supply short term.
To do so and satisfy your duty of care (potentially demonstrating to the Law and the HSE) you have to write a specific risk assessment for each and every use of something that has the potential to kill you -ie 240v.
In practice this involves for each and every use, on a daily basis or task basis, assessing each individual work zone, circumstance of use, visual inspection of tools and cables and to test the RCD before use.
With all that faffing about it is obvious why we use 110v for site supplies, lighting, fire alarms etc.
Battery operated power tools are great and most sites are swamped with them. But they do bring their own problems…
Theft and battery charging. If you have a large site it is not unusual to have 50 to 60 tradesmen all with chargers. Keeping that lot satisfied is a full time job from “that blokes nicked my battery” to the type of skullduggery that would astound the Artful Dodger. It is unfortunately a common occurrence for tools to get stolen and very difficult to police. Battery theft is even worse.
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